hello all, i wondered if anyone could translate this into italian, it is the story of my greatgrandmothers journey to england, i am going to italy soon and would like to show this to possible ancesters. My greatgrandmother "rosa marandola" was born in cassino in the province of frosinone on the 8/2/1856, she married aquila conte around 1873. a son was born in 1880 and another one in 1883 whose names i do not know, felicella, my grandmother was born in cervaro in the province of frosinone around 1890, maria giuseppa conte was born in cervaro on the 10/2/1892, also raphael conte the brother of felicella and maria conte was born in cassino on the 18/4/1894. great grandma had these five children three sons and two daughters by aquila conte. aquila was a builder and became an architect, he died in his forties through an accident at work. this left great grandma with five children to bring up alone. at that time they lived in cassino and had a large vineyard at the foot of mount cassino and made a quantity of wine. after great granddad died greatgrandma found it very difficult to manage all the work although all the children helped as much as they could. around the year 1896 great grandma remarried again. i do not know his name, he was a cruel man to her and the children. greatgrandma decided to get away from him and she heard about a man from england who would pay the expenses to get italians to england. but on arrival they would have to work for him. she would be able to take only one child with her, this was in the year 1902. by this time the two eldest boys where grown up and had found work one being 24 and the other nearly 22, it was decided to bring felicella but what should she do about the two youngest children? greatgrandma went to see her friends and one lady was coming to england the following year,she said she would look after the children, maria and raphael and bring them to england with her. she needed money for this. greatgrandma gave her what she could and promised to send money to her when she started work, also more for the childrens travel on the boat. on arrival in england at this stage i must tell you greatgrandma could not speak a word of english so she must have been some lady to come to a strange land penniless and with one young daughter. the man who brought them over was a rotter. he supplied them with a organ and they had to walk miles from town to town playing the organ collecting money which he used to take from them so all they got was a bed and enugh food to live on, greatgrandma stitched a pocket inside her skirt and each day she would take a portion of the money and hide it in the pocket. when she had enough she would send it to the lady in italy to pay for maria and raphael,s fares to england. having done this she started saving again with the intention of getting away from the organ grinder boss. she was a very good cook and after a time she heard of a house going for rent in burgess street grimsby. she went to the person who it belonged to and he let her have it to rent, she turned it into a guest house taking in lodgers to pay the rent and keep themselves, by this time maria and raphael had joined them. the lady who had been looking after them and who had received the money for the fares kept the money and smuggled them across, in those days the ladies wore long wide skirts and i know this is going to sound unbelievable but raphael told me this story and when i went to see great aunt maria to check it out, she told me the same story without any prompting from me. they where taken on the ship and brought off under the ladies skirt. that is why neither of them had a passport or their birth certificates. raphael and maria arrived in england in 1903. the story goes on and they all over a period of time became quite prosperous, this was only done by sheer hard work, maria married and owned shops, felicella married and opened a market gardening business, raphael fought in the great war and was a very gallant soilder. rosa my greatgrandmother supported them in all they did and died in 1931 in lincolnshire, a quite remarkable lady. thankyou for reading this and if anyone could possibly translate this into italian i would be eternally grateful, thankyou again kind regards john

Hi, John, just a friendly suggestion. I have made this journey myself to my ancestral town. I think you may be better received if you memorize a few key phrases such as "la mia bisnonna, Rosa Marandola, e' nata nel commune di casino, il 2 di agosto, 1856." Then maybe bring a family tree sketched out as a visual aid. The special stories you related above can be told to your relatives at a later point, once you are sure you have found the correct people. It seems like the three pieces of information that strangers wanted to know from me were the name, birthdate and when they left Italy.

hello poipuo and suanj, thankyou for the advise, would it be possible for you to translate the first section up to and including the point when it says"he died in his forties through an accident at work" once again thanks for the help and advise, best wishes, john

I only speak beginner's Italian, so I am not able to do this. It is much easier with my limited knowledge to translate from Italian to English because I usually understand the general sense of Italian and then use a dictionary for the words I don't know. I hope someone else can help!